Category: Q & A with the King Of Dice

April 27, 2011

Is Poker Luck or Skill?

by gcastle — Categories: Q & A with the King Of Dice — Tags: , , Leave a comment

Depends on how you play it. Those who win continually do so through skill and practice. Those who win with luck has been watching too much poker on television.

For those looking for a quick thrill you can go for those huge bluffs every few hands and hold out for that one card to hit. It will result in a couple of thrilling wins, but in the end you will end up losing more than you win. You basically turn poker into a game similar to slot machines and remove all of the skill from it.

There is a common misunderstanding about the nature of poker. Some group it casino games, but it is every but a casino game. Although variants of it float around as video poker and the same cards are used as in baccarat and blackjack, it doesn’t make it a casino game. You can manage the way you play and while you are playing against other players, you can work on beating them instead of trying to beat an unbeatable house edge.

This makes it possible for players to work on improving their skills and start to continually beat other players.  In the long run you will then be able to use these skills to beat players while still being able to throw in a couple of those bluffs.

If you want to win at poker, you can improve your skills and beat the other players on a regular basis. There is a lot of material available for free on the net to help you in learning how to play poker as well as improving your skills.

April 14, 2011

How much of what you see of tv is the real life of poker players?

What you see on television is 100% real and it is the up side of a poker players life. Hitting those glorious hands, pulling of a ridiculous bluff or raking in HUGE amounts of money is wonderful. It is however only the edited highlights we see. It is the reason why they keep doing it, because of these highs, but it is definitely not the whole picture.

For every tournament that they play for example it includes long flights and boring and lonely stays in hotels.  Then there are endless days working through the ranks and trying not to fall out of the tournaments. Often players would go a couple of hours without hitting any decent playable hands and then it comes down to a boring stretch of just trying to survive.

The fame and the fortune which comes with it is however enough to keep them motivated and wanting to improve their game and entertain the crowds.

April 14, 2011

Is there a strategy for winning at slots?

No. It is 100% luck and there is no real strategy for winning at slots. Slot machines are pre-programmed to pay out an exact percentage over a period of time. What this means is that sometimes you will win and sometimes you will lose. However if you play a single slot machine for an extended period of time, you will receive roughly a payout of 95 cents per 100 cents that you play, or 95%.

However, people love playing slot machines as they are one of the truest gambling games, the same as the lottery. The idea is to invest a small amount with the hope of getting lucky and winning huge amounts. If you are unlucky, you don’t hit, but if you get lucky you walk away with loads of cash.

Slot machines should always be played just for the enjoyment and thrill of it. It should never be looked at as a means of generating an income. To ensure that you get the best possible odds on a specific slot machine though, you always need to play the maximum bet amount. For example if you can play 3 coins max, then do it. There usually is no difference when you hit the smaller amounts, but specifically when you hit the very top amount, you will see that there is a significant change in your winnings.

You would sometimes hear people talking about a specific machine being due to pay out, or it running hot. I can however assure you that it is all purely co-incidence.

So go and have some fun playing slots, the way it was meant to be played and stop worrying about getting a strategy for winning at slots.

April 14, 2011

Can online gambling sites access the age of underage gamblers cards?

There are many measures in place at online casinos, poker rooms and other establishments to guard against underage gambling. I can not say that they stop 100% of it, but I believe they stop the majority of it happening.

To guard both against fraud and underage gambling, these online gaming establishments often request that they players supply them with both driver’s license as well as copies of the cards. There are often faxed through or scanned and e-mailed through to the casino.

This doesn’t mean that there isn’t some or other sneaky way for underage gamblers to get around the security measures in place. Often when there is suspicious activity on an account the card holder would be contacted as well to ensure that things like this does not happen.

April 13, 2011

What is the best Canadian online casino?

The great things about online casinos is that they are available globally. There are a couple of casinos that don’t operate in the US, but I have never heard of any of them not allowing Canadian players.

There are a couple of casinos that I especially like and I am sure that it would make most Canadian players just as happy. Have a look at our online casino page and have a look at the casinos on there. The ones I enjoy the most are 7 Sultans, Vegas Palms, Captain Cooks Casino and Zodiac Casino.

You can try out an of them at no cost first to find out if you also like them. If you enjoy them, you can then move over to playing for real money and take advantages of all of the bonus offers.

The casinos I mentioned all run on Microgaming casino software and all of them offer 300+ different casino games. Enjoy it!

April 13, 2011

Where can I play online poker without using real money?

You can play online poker at no cost in most poker rooms. If you have a look at the poker rooms featured in our online poker section you will find a couple of great choices where this is possible.

In order for you to play poker for free you would need to download and install the poker room software. After you have registered an account you can start playing.

If you have a look at the options in a poker room there are usually clear options to select free poker tables. On others where it is not so clear, you will see that they show the blind amounts on that table or for that tournament in a different colour. Most of the poker rooms will refresh your free account every 24 hours with a certain amount of chips to play with.

The great things is that you would actually also be able to take part in freeroll tournaments. The field of players is usually very big, but the winners win real money. So it is a great risk free way to go.

You will regularly then receive offers from the poker rooms to play for real money, but you never need to convert to playing for real money if you don’t want to. You will be able to play in that online poker room for free for as long as you like.

April 7, 2011

Does online poker rooms use bots to fill empty spots in tournaments?

by gcastle — Categories: Q & A with the King Of Dice — Tags: , Leave a comment

I would rather NOT OFFICIALLY say so, but Yes, bots are used. One of the poker rooms I have been playing at for about 4 years now used to use bots in their early years.

I believe it would be something you would find mostly in smaller and less popular online poker rooms, but I can not say that there aren’t any bots used to fill tournaments in the bigger poker rooms when it comes to tournaments.

A few years back we were looking at starting up a poker room of our own and a feature of many of the poker software providers was the option of having bots in the poker room. When starting out it is extremely difficult to get large enough numbers of players into a poker room to make it all worthwhile.

The bots are basically used as place holders until such time as there are enough human players. Then the bots get phased out gradually.

There is however no malicious intent in the use of bots from poker rooms in my opinion.

April 7, 2011

Is the secret to success in poker discipline?

In the end… Yes. If you have been playing for a while, you would start to realize that you can learn all manner of tricks about how to play, but patience is always needed.

Your patience is tested when playing poker when:

- You haven’t hit a decent hand for a couple of hours

- When you are deep into a tournament and everyone is starting to play loosely

- When you are working on setting up someone for a big fall

… and many more like that.

What goes hand in hand with patience when playing poker is to make sure that you concentrate and pick your spots to play. Jumping in at the wrong time will just lead to you bleeding chips. Jumping in at the right time can swell your chipstack substantially.

April 6, 2011

Can anyone give me some good poker tips?

by gcastle — Categories: Q & A with the King Of Dice — Tags: , Leave a comment

To get started you have to first look at the very basics. The first thing you need to know about are the poker winning hands. You need to know the strength of your hand to know if it is worthwhile playing.

The second thing you need to look at is poker starting hands. These are very simple to learn and will help you to play only hands that offer you a greater chance of winning. If you play with the right hands in the right situations, you would pick up more wins.

On our site you would find a couple of poker rooms to play at. Download their free poker software and practice on there. Sadly it is difficult to find games to play for free where the people don’t play like lunatics. Playing for free is however a very good training ground.

If you understand the flow of the game a little better, then start with some of the lowest possible limits in the poker room. Play on the smaller tables where 6 people are seated as these normally make strong hands even stronger (the poker starting hands). I won’t go into detail as to why this is here, but believe me it makes sense mathematically.

We have some very basic tips on our site and mostly they go into playing with patience, folding hands that are probably not the best, playing in strong positiions (when you are close to the dealer button and react late) , only playing with stronger starting hands and NOT BLUFFING.

If you use only these tips they would get you some way in playing decent poker. However if you want it in a clearer format (with pictures and the lot) I would have to suggest that you look at http://www.pokertips.org.

April 5, 2011

Why do I have the worst luck in poker?

Sadly you would get some instances where you would have a rotten run of luck. It would be where someone you play against would hit a lucky card that had a 2% or 5% chance of hitting. That happens, but more often than not the problem has nothing to do with that.

What usually happens is that you are probably not approaching it the way you should. Many people see some of the poker superstars playing on the television and they usally pull off amazing plays using a super aggressive style of playing. It looks like it is a ridiculous play with loads of luck mixed in. However it is usually a carefully calculated move that was probably set up over a couple of hands and aimed at a specific player.

If you are still convinced that the majority of your outcome when playing poker comes from luck, then you have loads to learn still. Poker is a game of skill and what you would need to do is start off first of all with the basics. Make sure you play with the correct starting hands, understand the very basics of poker strategy and play conservatively.

By staying away from bluffs you would be able to see that you will have more winning days than losing days. And remember none of this would have anything to do with luck. It would only have to do with concentration and patience.

What you should do is go to our section on texas holdem poker and read through the information we have on how to play poker, poker strategy and poker starting hands. Then download one of the poker rooms you find on the site and play for just small odds. Following even these few simple instructions we have laid out, you will see an improvement in your poker fortunes.

April 5, 2011

Can you play blackjack for money online in the US?

You most definitely can. There are laws in some states that prohibit transactions being done between a gambling organization and the individual’s bank.

So the only thing you need to do is use one of the online wallets that they have available for these transactions.

You can have a look at our online casinos page to find a couple of casinos where you can play blackjack in the US.

April 5, 2011

How much can an amateur poker player make in a sitting?

It is very possible to make a decent living playing poker even if it is playing online.

Playing online poker actually offers you a better opportunity to make money playing. If you play in an online poker room the action is often 5 to 10 times faster than playing at a regular poker table.

What this means is that you would be able to see more hands per hour. The major benefit of this is that you wouldn’t need to concentrate for such a long time to see a couple of decent hands.

When playing online poker you would also be able to play more than one table at a time, but this is only  good idea once you have more experience playing.

Online poker often yields the best results if you play really conservatively. If you do that you will be able to steadily make gains and build up your bank roll.

Have a look at our tips on how to play poker under our text holdem poker section. It doesn’t cover every little possibility, but it will make things a lot easier for you. With only those tips you would be able to start playing and play a conservative, but winning poker game.

But coming back to the numbers… The higher value tables, where the blinds are over $2 usually are home to more experienced players. So we suggest you start out small and only move up to a higher level if you have enough money available and you have been winning constantly over an extended period of time.

I know of poker players who work 3 to 4 hours a day and make around $15,000 to $20,000 each month. And this never has anything to do with winning a tournament.

Please understand however that this is not realistic for anyone starting out. However should you manage to keep up your concentration and play conservatively, you will make money from this.

April 4, 2011

Are slot machines rigged?

Most definitely. Sorry, probably not the answer you were looking for and putting it that way makes it sound a little harsh.

The truth is however that the slot machines are managed electronically and the outcome of each spin is based on carefully calculated random number generators.

What this means is that a casino can set up a slot machine to payout the percentage amount they want it to payout over a certain time period.

Let me explain. If you have a look at a specific slot machine a casino can set it to pay out 95% of the time for example. This means that for every 100 cents that players bet, 95 cents pay out.

It might looked rigged as one day you might have 15 jackpot winners and everyone loves the slot machine. However the next day no-one wins anything substantial and everyone hates the slot machine again.

Over that period of a month, the slot machine would have paid out almost exactly 95 cents for every 100 cents that have been bet.

April 4, 2011

How can you win at blackjack?

by gcastle — Categories: Q & A with the King Of Dice — Tags: Leave a comment

Blackjack is one of the casino games that you can play on a combination of skill and luck.

The basis of any good blackjack strategy is the blackjack basic strategy. It is used the world over by blackjack players and it is used in regular casinos, online casinos and blackjack tournaments.

Using this strategy will cut down the casino’s edge to the absolute minimum. If you don’t want to go to the effort of learning all of the combinations by heart, then you should just print out a blackjack basic strategy chart. It is very simple and straight forward to follow.

As far as winning goes, you will have many more winning days than you used to have if you employ this strategy. In the long run however the casino will still hold the edge.

What you can do however is to have a look at tournament blackjack. It works very similar to the short Sit-n-go poker tournaments and winning them happens with a combination of proper strategy and calculated aggression.  It is also the most fun you will have playing blackjack.

However you can employ the blackjack basic strategy to just play regular games and maybe the luck runs your way and you actually win more than you lose.

March 31, 2011

Can you win over a million pounds through online gaming?

The  first people to win those amounts came around 2003/2004. In short the answer is yes.

There are a couple of progressive slot machines with HUGE progressive jackpots like these ones. Most of them are displayed in USD and they often go over $1,500,000.

These slot machines are only available from Microgaming casinos, which only cater to players outside the US. The casinos I like the best from them are:

- 7 Sultans Casino

- Captain Cooks Casino

- Platinum Play Casino

- Lucky Emperor Casino

- Zodiac Casino

The casino software is free to download and install. Have a look at the casinos and maybe you can become the next millionaire…

March 31, 2011

Where can I find a list of 18 and over casinos?

Getting a list of them would just cost a little searching on google. All casinos only allow gamblers of at least 18 years and over to play. So there really aren’t any of them that are open to younger players.

If you are looking for casinos near you, just refine your search for example “casino london” or “casino california”. You will easily find loads of casinos in this way.

If you want to play at online casinos there are a couple of them that don’t allow US players though. Have a look at our section on online casinos to find both options.

March 30, 2011

Where can I learn the rules of casino games?

There are many different places where you can find out how different casino games work. If you have a look at the different sections on the GamblingCastle website you will see that we cover most of the popular casino games.

Having a good understanding of how the casino games are played you will be able to find out which games you like best. I would like to suggest that you read up a bit about the different games and then try them out on one of the casinos on the site.

The cool thing about playing the casino games on the online casinos is that you can try them for free. This makes it possible for you to play a game for a while to see if it is to your liking. If you like it you can continue playing for free or you can switch to playing for real money.

Which ever way you want to go. Have fun with it.

March 29, 2011

What is the best place to play slots and win money?

by gcastle — Categories: Q & A with the King Of Dice — Tags: , , Leave a comment

Your  best bet for winning at slots is playing the online slot machines. The reason for this is not always obvious. There is also a crucial thing you need to remember

The reason to play online slots is due to the better payout rates of online slot machines. All slot machines these days payout according to specific payout percentages.

For example a regular land based casino might set their slots at a 90% payout rate. Over a specific period of time, for example a month, it would pay out almost exactly 90 cents/dollar.

When you play at an online casino the payout rates are a couple of percentage points better. You will often find that they pay out around 95% and sometimes even up to 98%. That means it pays out 95-98 cents/dollar.

The reason for this difference in payout rates is that online casinos have far less overhead costs than regular casinos. They can therefore still stay profitable with such favorable payout rates.

What you should always remember is to play the maximum bet on slot machines. If you play the max bet your payout rates would be the best and it would be clear to see if you look at the payouts offered when you hit the jackpot playing the maximum bet.

There are a number of top casinos that you will find online and some of the most respected online casinos are right here on GamblingCastle.com.

March 28, 2011

I want to get good at poker, what should I read or study?

by gcastle — Categories: Q & A with the King Of DiceLeave a comment

I would like to first give you my short version of advise and then get onto the real stuff. With poker you should start out slowly.

The most fundamental advice I can give is playing position, playing the odds, playing the strong starting hands and folding the hands that haven’t improved… then improvise from there as you get better and get a couple of easy wins under the belt.

For reading material there are just a couple of books that make sense to concentrate on. Reading to many will confuse you and you will make mistakes. The holy book of poker is “Super System” by Doyle Brunson – it covers everything. The series “Harrington on Hold’em” covers tournaments and cash game play really nicely with some practical examples, which are easy to understand. There are a couple of great other books as well especially from Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu. Daniel is just a genius. No other way to describe it.

If you want to learn online, then do so by going to www.pokertips.org. They have everything covered nicely starting with beginner poker strategy through to more advanced strategy. If followed religiously, you will start to see MANY more winning days rather than losing days.

March 28, 2011

Do poker players have to wear all those logos?

by gcastle — Categories: Q & A with the King Of Dice — Tags: , , Leave a comment

Poker players these days have all become professional sportsmen. They may not look the part, but they are. In the same way that you would have a professional basketball players have sponsorships from different apparel companies, so you also have the same with poker players.

A couple of them are sponsored only by poker rooms, which make money from viewers who see the brand names and go and play at these poker rooms. If their favourites are playing there, why wouldn’t they play there as well?

There are often other sponsorships that start popping up as well. Often players have clothes sponsorships or sunglasses sponsorships and it is a great way for companies to have a living billboard representing them.

The professional poker players make a fair amount of money from these endorsements and the companies get a lot of coverage. Many poker tournaments are often covered over a couple of days and if they are backing some of the best poker players, they will get lots of advertising time for their investment.

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